The _cloisonné_ of Pekin is famous, and specimens of it command a good price throughout China. It is, however, decidedly inferior to Japanese work, which is much better finished and of far greater artistic merit. As I had never seen how the _cloisonné_ is made, I paid a visit to the principal factory in the capital. I was received by the proprietor, a very amiable old gentleman, who took our party round his establishment and showed us the process through all the stages from the raw material to the finished article. The place consisted of a number of small Chinese houses, some of which served as workshops, some were fitted up with furnaces for firing, others occupied as residences by the employees and their families. In the first courtyard two men were seated before a small table, making European cigarette cases. In front of them lay the design to be reproduced, flanked by small saucers containing liquid enamel of various colours and tiny brushes. One man held a square plate of copper, and with a sharp scissors cut very thin strips from its edges. These he seized with a pair of pincers and deftly bent and twisted them into patterns to correspond with the lines of the design before him. They were then fixed on to the side of the case with some adhesive mixture. As soon as they were firm, the other man filled in the spaces between these raised lines with the coloured enamels by means of a fine brush. The work was then left to dry before being fired in the furnaces to fix the colours. With their rude instruments these artists—for such they were—fashioned the most complicated designs of foliage, flowers, or dragons with a marvellous dexterity, judging altogether by eye, and never deviating by a hair’s breadth from the pattern given them. We entered a room, in which others sat round long tables, fastening designs on copper vases, plates, or bowls. Ornaments of all kinds, napkin‐rings, and crucifixes—these, needless to say, for foreigners—were being made. Show‐cases with specimens of the finished work stood round the walls, and the proprietor exhibited with pardonable pride the triumphs of his art. With rude appliances in dimly‐lit rooms, these ignorant Chinese workmen had achieved gems that the European artist could not excel. He then showed us the large blocks of the raw stone which had to be ground up to form the enamel, and explained the processes it had to undergo before it became the brightly coloured paste that filled the saucers on the tables. We were then shown articles being placed in the furnaces or withdrawn when the firing was complete. Before leaving we purchased some specimens of the work as souvenirs of an interesting visit, and bade good‐bye to the grateful proprietor.